The production of image prints in varying sizes continues to enjoy a significant demand despite the various devices that are available today for people to electronically view and enjoy images. Coupled with that demand is the need for print product providers, not only to fulfill the requests and specifications of customers, but to also be able to do so to the satisfaction of the customer and in an efficient, cost effective manner.
To address this issue, a number of printing programs, devices and machines have evolved over the years. Many such solutions include a wide variety of printing capabilities, thus enabling customers to specify varying end product characteristics. Such characteristics might include print sizes, print finishes—glossy or non-glossy, and so on. Associated with such characteristics is the need for special purpose printing devices and special purpose or appropriately sized mediums, such as photo paper. As such, a photo-finisher may have multiple print devices, with each device having the ability to handle and/or internally stock varying print medium formats and sizes.
In order to fulfill a print request, it is necessary for the appropriate device and medium to be selected. In many situations, this process may include software programs that essentially make the appropriate selections for the operator. This option ensures that the proper medium and most efficient photo paper sizes, for example, are selected in order to maximize the number of photographs that can be generated for the customer specified size characteristic. A problem generally arises when, for example, the print device to which a product job has been sent, runs out of the appropriate sized paper (e.g., 6 inch or 8 inch paper), or the device is not capable of handling the characteristics associated with the particular product. In this situation, the operator, if available, must then reload the printer or reassign the print job. However, if the paper size is not immediately available to the operator or the operator is not physically present, the entire operations for that fulfillment center will come to a halt. This can be particularly problematic when dealing with a fulfillment center that is handling several hundreds of orders.
What is needed is an automatic methodology by which the delay can be totally abated, irrespective of the immediate availability of the “correct” sized paper, without operator intervention. Print jobs should be re-routable to other devices, and alternate paper selections should be possible in order to achieve the same end result, without product waste. Even further, means by which the most efficient, capable, and properly stocked print devices for a given product characteristic, could be selected at the onset would be highly advantageous.
Accordingly there is a need for an efficient, scalable, user friendly and robust technique for assigning jobs to print device queues based on the characteristics of the products involved in each of the jobs. The present invention fills these needs as well as other needs.